With Safety Tips for Conducting Community Meetings
Updated July 2020
This document includes key Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) considerations during shifting lockdown measures, safety measures for conducting in-person community
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meetings, and a template that brings both of these considerations together to help agencies adapt their RCCE approaches as these measures shift.
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In the last quarter century, several projects emerged to reform mental health services in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Some did not survive the difficulties that inevitably arise in proce
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sses of change, and ended up disappearing before the intended changes could be introduced. Others, however, as shown in this publication, were able to overcome difficulties and meet intended objectives, effectively transforming the structure and quality of services. All these projects, including the many that did not survive, were part of one of the richest experiences in the transformation of mental health care worldwide - the experience of mental health reform in Latin America and the Caribbean
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A broad range of UNHCR’s key priorities overlap with MHPSS issues – for example, child protection and sexual and gender-based violence [SGBV] prevention
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and response.
Despite all these existent synergies, UNHCR’s current policies and guidelines do not sufficiently link with MHPSS principles. For example, the Community Services section, which is closely aligned to the principles of MHPSS and could be well-positioned to guide the implementation of related programs, has not adopted the MHPSS language or approach.
There are opportunities for UNHCR to engage more strongly and clearly in this field. However, this requires a vision for how the organisation as a whole, and particular sectors within the organisation, will engage within the field of MHPSS activities. For a start, UNHCR can work to improve its understanding and framing of mental health and psychosocial issues, and how these issues fit within its broader mandate.
While the majority of MHPSS activities are delivered by implementing partners, UNHCR staff require familiarity with core principles in the field, such as the Intervention Pyramid contained in the IASC Guidelines, in order to support and monitor quality MHPSS activities.
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The government of Rwanda conducted the 2010 Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS) to gather up-to-date information for monitoring progress on healthcare
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programs and policies in Rwanda, including the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),
and Vision 2020. The 2010 RDHS is a follow-up to the 1992, 2000, 2005, and 2007-08 RDHS surveys. Each survey provides data on background characteristics of the respondents, demographic and health indicators, household health expenditures, and domestic violence. The target groups in these surveys were women age 15-49 and men age 15-59
who were randomly selected from households across the country. Information about children age 5 and under also was collected, including the weight and height of the children.
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Policy Guidance Brief 2
• The potential health risks from climate change include: increase of waterborne and vector-borne diseases, heat-rel
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ated illnesses, injuries and deaths, food insecurity and increased malnutrition. The poor, women, children and the elderly, as well as communities living in remote high-risk areas are most vulnerable.
• The expected results to achieve this outcome are: (i) climate risk management system is well-established, robust and nationally integrated to respond efectively to increased intensity and impact of risks and hazards on people’s health and wellbeing; (ii) improved social protection, gender consideration and risk finance capacity to prepare for and recover from potential loss and damage resulting from climate change; (iii) Myanmar’s health system is improved and can deal with climate-induced health hazards and support climate-vulnerable communities to respond effectively to disaster and health hazards from climate change.
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The Urban Health Equity Assessment and Response Tool (Urban HEART) is a user-friendly guide for policy-
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and decision-makers at national and local levels to: identify and analyse inequities in health between people living in various parts of cities, or belonging to different socioeconomic groups within and across cities; facilitate decisions on viable and effective strategies, interventions and actions that should be used to reduce inter- and intra-city health inequities.
Also available in French and Spanish: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/79060
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The Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Legal Framework comes before the Specialized Technical Committee on Health and Drug Control for adoption
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and endorsement. The IPC Legal Framework is designed to guide Member States in the review and strengthening of laws and policies that support IPC at both the national level and in healthcare facilities. In developing this IPC Legal Framework, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)
is furthering its mandates to harmonize disease control and prevention policies and promote the prevention and control of diseases by building capacity of public health institutions in Members States.
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The Human Resources for Health policy (HRH) will provide guidelines and the direction toward strengthening the planning, management, utilization
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and monitoring of health sector human resources; not forgetting responses to the contemporary challenges and developments in the sector including the mobility and motivation of human resources; and advancements in technology.
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The Kenyan Health Sector has been playing a critical role in
providing health care services in response to the population
needs in line with the Kenya H
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ealth Policy, 2014-2030’s goal
of attaining the highest possible health standards in a manner
responsive to the population needs.
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he pandemic has produced an unprecedented economic and social crisis, and it could generate a food, humanitarian, and political crisis if urgent me
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asures are not taken. The policy options for addressing the pandemic entail consolidating national plans and achieving intersectoral consensus. The response should be structured in three nonlinear and interrelated phases—control, reactivation, and rebuilding—involving the participation of technical actors representing not only the field of health but also other social and economic areas. Measures implemented to control the pandemic as well as measures for the reactivation and rebuilding phases will require increased public investment in health until the recommended parameters are achieved.
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The TB section of the toolkit presents selected (a) programmatic output and (b) outcome and impact indicators for TB. In addition to recommended monitoring
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programs and measuring the outcomes and impact of TB programs, indicators for the strengthening of health systems, strengthening of community systems and some indicators that measure quality of services are also included.
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This article reexamines a set of study findings that directly relate to the influence of gender on workplace violence, synthesizes these findings with other research from Rwanda, and examines the subsequent impact of the study on Rwanda’s
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policy environment.
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Poverty, HIV and other disease burdens, coupled with common mental disorders including alcohol and other substance use disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, clinical
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and postnatal depression, distress, and anxiety, impact how caregivers meet the needs of children. When mental health is not considered or addressed, there can be a significant impact on an individual, their family and the community.
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The Rwandan Health Sector Research Policy (HSRP) policy defines the scope of research in the Rwandan he
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alth sector and presents the strategic principles to ensure that the research done in Rwandan health sector will be conducted in a more coordinated manner, promoting research for equity and social justice and to benefit the Rwandan community as well as the global community in general. The health sector research policy provides solutions to the challenges which have been identified in health research. It will support and improve Rwanda’s health research environment and create a space and framework in which health research will grow and support improved health outcomes in Rwanda. It gives a clear orientation for dissemination and use of results. For sustainability of health research in Rwanda, foreign researchers are called upon to collaborate with Rwandans with clear capacity building plans.
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Objectives: This paper reviews the mental health policies that have been implemented in Chile in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the international context of countries' responses. Even before
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the start of the pandemic, there were significant barriers to access mental health services in Chile, coupled with a scenario of nationwide social unrest and protests that questioned the legitimacy of public institutions; now the rapidly worsening outbreaks of COVID-19 are exacerbating the pre-existing mental health crisis.
Methods: We conducted a bibliometric and content analysis of the Chilean mental health public policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and then compared these policies with international experiences and emerging scientific evidence on the mental health impact of pandemics.
Results: Our analysis of the policies identifies five crucial points of action developed in Chile: (i) an established framework to address mental health in emergency and disaster situations; (ii) a timely COVID-19 Mental Health Action Plan; (iii) inclusion of mental health in the public health agenda; (iv) development of a presidential strategy during the pandemic for comprehensive mental health and well-being; and (v) emerging research assessing the mental health implications of COVID-19.
Conclusions: In Chile, the public policy responses to address the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic has been characterized by the coordinated implementation of mental health plans, ranging from a health sectoral initiative to inter-agency and intersectoral efforts. However, it is imperative that increased funding is allocated to mental health, and efforts should be made to promote the participation of people with lived experiences and communities in the design and implementation of the proposed actions. This aspect could be of key importance to social peace and community recovery after the pandemic.
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The Community-based Health System Model Series briefs identify and discuss critical health system inputs
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and processes that have contributed to the implementation and expansion of community-based service delivery in different countries.
Countries were selected for their geographic diversity, type of service delivery model, and programmatic scale-up.
This brief reviews Malawi’s community health model to inform future policy, program design, and implementation in other countries.
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This Policy for community-based health insurance answers the will of the Rwandan government to popularize the fundamental aces of the current policy
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. This document serves as an update to the first policy that was elaborated and published in 2004, and integrates all the changes that have occurred in the process since then. This new version of the policy for community based health insurance contributes to the fulfillment of the same objectives as the EDPRS and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). It integrates system experiences but more especially the devices adapted to the challenges with which community base health insurance are confronted at present.
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To support the achievement of health equity in the Region, the regional inter-agency movement Every Woman Every Child Latin America and the Caribbean (EWEC-LAC) advocates for
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and supports the use of equity and evidence-based policies, strategies and interventions to accelerate equitable progress in the health of women, children and adolescents. Although progress has been made, great inequities persist. Women from the LAC region’s poorest countries are almost four times more likely to die due to complications during childbirth than those living in the wealthiest countries. Through the years, several tools, instruments and methods (TIMs) have been developed by global, regional and country partners that can be used to conduct systematic equity-based analyses and/or re-designs of health systems, programs, strategies and interventions. The main purpose of this document is to present an overview of existing TIMs that can be used by policymakers, program managers, development partners, nongovernmental organizations, academia and civil society partners to strengthen systematic identification, analysis and responding to social inequities in the health of women, children and adolescents in LAC. The TIMs included were identified through a systematic search process
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As the culminating volume in the DCP3 series, volume 9 will provide an overview of DCP3 findings and methods, a summary of messages and substantive lessons to be taken from DCP3,
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and a further discussion of cross-cutting and synthesizing topics across the first eight volumes. The introductory chapters (1-3) in this volume take as their starting point the elements of the Essential Packages presented in the overview chapters of each volume. First, the chapter on intersectoral policy priorities for health includes fiscal and intersectoral policies and assembles a subset of the population policies and applies strict criteria for a low-income setting in order to propose a "highest-priority" essential package. Second, the chapter on packages of care and delivery platforms for universal health coverage (UHC) includes health sector interventions, primarily clinical and public health services, and uses the same approach to propose a highest priority package of interventions and policies that meet similar criteria, provides cost estimates, and describes a pathway to UHC.
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Submitted to the US Agency for International Development by the
Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) Program.
This manual provides a framework to identify problems and
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design interventions to improve access to and use of medicines for children. It is a resource for both health policy makers and health system managers and presents a structured approach to the steps introduced in the framework in the context of child health.
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